The feeling that 'no one is listening to me' make us want to spend time with machines that seem to care about us.

We are not as strong as technology's pull.

I don't tell a story unless I have a very deep bench. If you tell an idiosyncratic story, there's no resonance. People read it and say, "I don't see anyone like that." So I tell a story only when I have many stories behind it.

The computer is a mind machine. It doesn't have its own psychology, but in a way it presents itself as though it does.

Does virtual intimacy degrade our experience of the other kind and, indeed, of all encounters, of any kind?

Kids have moved from, "I have a feeling, I want to make a call," to "I'd like to have a feeling, I need to send a text." In other words, there's a continual need for validation. They're constituting a thought or feeling by sending it out for votes. That's really not where you want to be emotionally.

If we don't teach kids how to be alone, they will end up only lonely.